I didn't want to write a paper for my Final in one of my college classes that was focused on Mark Twain. So instead I scoured the internet, and the library, my librivox audio books, and my music collection, and I mashed this up.
Music is by Prefuse 73, and it is still one of their best songs. I highly recommend that you support Prefuse if you like them.
Will today's term paper be tomorrow's media mashup? Should visual literacy be contrasted against literacy, or is it really about the ability to synthesize concepts and communicate those in compelling ways?
"Research now is large scale. It's collaborative. It's multinational." - Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Inteligence, University of Southhampton & Director of the Web Science Trust
The showreal is a great introduction to the ideas and promise of new, innovative research tools.
British Library's Growing Knowledge: The evolution of research
Instead of focusing on positioning these machines as librarian/library replacements, we should view these as user-centric models for the delivery of physical materials, at any time, in locations that may be more convenient to the library's patrons.
Librarians already provide services through non-human interaction (e.g. reader services online), and, at least in my community, reserves are a non-human transaction (from selection to pickup). Furthermore, library vending machines in non-traditional places like grocery stores are an exiting way to increase the library's service & marketing footprint.
If you haven't seen it yet, check out Urban Library Council's 2010 Top Innovations (PDF).
ULC's panel of judges reviewed over 200 entries and selected 12 programs "based on their innovation, results achieved, and capacity to be replicated in other libraries."
If I were to pick a favorite, I would probably choose San Francisco Public Library's Green Stacks program. The program successfully interweaves sustainability, education, and community. I'm intreagued by the idea of the library as a conduit for local knowledge moving from patron to patron through the use of community gardening. This idea of harvesting community knowledge has also been discussed by CML's Helene Blowers.
[Note: Full Disclosure. My employer has worked with ULC in the past and the principal of my firm **gasp** gave me the printed version of ULC's document because she thought I'd like it. She was right.]
Back in May, I had the pleasure of attending this symposium with an impressive speaker lineup. I was fortunate enough to speak with some of the presenters (including Jeni Britton and my former philosophy professor, Larry Sanger). In all, the event was quite a success for The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.
Below is an excerpt of my summary for the symposium.
Master of Ceremonies Mike Bills, Executive in Residence, Fisher College of Business
Speakers Christine A. Poon, Dean, Fisher College of Business Martin Keen, Founder, Keen Footware Bruce Lavash, Research Fellow, Vic Mills Society, Procter & Gamble Sherri Geldin, Director, Wexner Center for the Arts Peter Thum, Social Entrepreneur, Founder, Ethos Water Larry Sanger, Co-founder, Wikipedia Kelly Mooney, President, Chief Experience Officer, Resource Interactive Jeni Britton, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Overview What If? was the 1st annual innovation summit at Fisher College of Business and was organized by Innovation Fisher (IF), a student-led organization. The summit was created to bring together innovative leaders across diverse disciplines in order to spark thought and dialogue about innovation.
Overall Themes 1. Continually question 2. Diversity of thought 3. Freedom to create 4. Protection to fail 5. Continuous learning process 6. Be aware: unmet needs, environments, societal trends
I was particularly moved by Kelly Mooney's presentation. She touched on building a culture of questioning, embracing simplicity, and empowering clients. In particular, the piece about empowering clients to the point that they no longer need your current services while innovating to meet the clients future needs was mind-bending and genius.
As co-founder of Cbus Libraries, I champion libraries, library professionals, and the love of reading. Cbus Libraries explores and promotes libraries of all sizes and types within the Central Ohio region, including public, academic, government, corporate and private libraries. We support the love of reading through grassroots community involvement, including our Libraries Everywhere program. I received my Master of Library and Information Science degree from Kent State University and separate Bachelor of Arts degrees in history of art and Italian from The Ohio State University. I like to read and write about art, libraries, innovation, and copyright. I am married with three beautiful daughters, and we live in the historic neighborhood of Clintonville in Columbus, Ohio.
The Rasmussen brothers created an interesting product, but the lack of ease, lack of integration with existing products (both Google's & others), and Internet user behavior did not bode well for Wave.
I really, really liked the promise of being able to tie conversations across different platforms into one thread (e.g. email, blog, micro-blog, etc.), but, like others, I found the service difficult to incorporate and somewhat siloed.
Lessons: 1) Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) 2) Demonstrate within 60 seconds how it will easily integrate into a user's habits 3) Demonstrate and make incremental steps to changing user behavior (or demonstrate the value of radical change in such a way that users can't resist adopting)
The hive mind concept has been around (Yahoo! Answers, Google's defunct Google Answers), but with the advent of Twitter and potential for immediate responses amongst trusted peers such services are heating up.
It would be interesting if, instead of pulsing the entire mass of Facebook, one could ask trusted user groups. In my mind, this would be librarians/libraries. Just another way to insert library services outside library walls (and more user-friendly than most virtual reference). Food for thought.
Image: Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye staircase via Egpdesign.ca
Thinking today of how the structure and organization of information could have parallels in modernist thinking--lack of ornamentation, efficiency , and the slippery notion of purity. Additionally, how might the principles of design (Balance, Proportion, Rhythm, Emphasis, Unity) apply or not to IA. Maybe there's a paper in this. I'm sure pieces of this type of thinking have been done, but I'm not sure if the thesis has been completely investigated. If you know of something, please feel free to comment. Thanks!
Shepard Fairey is currently on show at Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center. The limited edition print above was created to commemorate the show's opening, and CAC sold out of the print in just 1.5 hours. Whew. More are available in a drawing to be held at CAC's annual benefit (which Fairey will be DJ'ing!). Fairey's work will be on preview until Aug. 22, 2010.
This presentation explores augmented reality and potential uses within arts education. The presentation has been enhanced from the previous October 2012 presentation. Videos have been added, new examples have been provided, further explanations have been added to the notes, and the information has been tailored to the VRA audience.
Presented as part the Visual Resources Association’s 31st Annual Conference session, “Enhancing Education Beyond the Classroom Experience via Visualization Technologies.”
Rarely do I care about about upcoming movies, but this is completely different. As an early gaming junkie who credits Showbiz Pizza & bowling alleys for introducing me to all the classics & then some, I loved playing Tron. Moreover, I loved the movie too. Last year I was asked at work what my favorite Disney movie was, you can guess the answer. Half of the staff didn't even know what Tron was! It's always a game of chance when revisiting childhood classics; however, judging from the trailer & 1st clip, Tron Legacy looks to be 1st rate.
Boryana's Fragmentation work is just beautiful. She captures a narrative that explores time & place through the lens of perception. There are two things I personally love about this particular piece. 1) Her photography mixes seamlessly with her painting--even creating a woven pattern on the left. 2) Graffiti-like drips at the bottom.
This tutorial has some nice animations (reminiscent of Prezi). I also like how they gave a scenario where a student uses Wikipedia as a jumping point to find more information in trusted sources at Penn.
Big changes are underway. Plans are to have the blog completely updated over the next few days. The blog will act as my primary website with links being changed over to the bryanloar.com domain.
The redesigned blog will have new banners, a minimalist front page, and resume & contact info.
The Super Desserts are one of my favorite bands, and I'm lucky enough to live where the band calls home (Columbus, OH). Columbus has really come around in the last past 5-10 years. Clintonville's unnofficial Craft District, Junctionview Studios, Chop Chop, Rivet, Mahan Gallery, OAL's new gallery space, a progressive president at CCAD, and progressively better shows at Roy G Biv, I'm finally at the point where I actually like living here.
Wholly Craft is one of those craftin' shops in Clintonville, and you can catch the Super Desserts every once-a-while here. I didn't get a chance to see them at the show above, but I did catch them back in 2008 with an absolutely beautiful acoustic set by the Flotation Walls.
Hello, my name is Bryan, and I'm a 21st century librarian.
"What's that?" you ask. Librarians in the 21st century are precisionists. They use their skills to access, organize, store, and disseminate information in a world that is information intensive. They are part Swiss Army Knife, ninja, and teacher. They help your organization & community build upon the rich knowledge that is present, and they ensure the knowledge will be there for you & generations thereafter.
